Patent Application
20110035761
The present invention relates to a disc device.
There has been conventionally known a disc device applicable to, for instance, a portable personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “laptop”) in which a storage medium is mounted on a tray that can be housed in a casing so that the storage medium is inserted/ejected (e.g., see Patent Literature 1).
The device of Patent Literature 1 is provided with a ground plate being attached to the front end surface of a disc tray. A free end of the ground plate is brought into contact with an opening of a chassis case to establish a discharge path. Thus, when a finger of a user contacts with an operation button, static electricity in the user's body can flow into the discharge path, thereby preventing damage to an electronic component or the like.
[Patent Literature 1] JP-A-2004-152433
With the above configuration of Patent Literature 1, a hand can contacts with the free end when a bezel is to be attached to a tray, so that the free end may be deformed in an ejection direction of the tray to be damaged. Accordingly, the device of Patent Document 1 should be used with caution and thus is not easily handled.
An object of the present invention is to provide a disc device that is capable of preventing damage to an electronic component and of being easily handled.
According to an aspect of the invention, a disc device includes: a tray on which a disc storage medium is mounted; and a casing being formed in a substantially box shape of which one surface defines an opening, the casing in which the tray is housed in a movable manner such that the tray is inserted and ejected through the opening, in which the tray is provided with an electronic component being at least partially located at an end in an ejection direction of the tray and a ground member being made of an electrically-conductive material, the ground member being located in a vicinity of the electronic component without connection to the electronic component, the ground member is provided with an electronic component proximal portion being located in the vicinity of the electronic component and a ground extension portion that extends from one end of the electronic component proximal portion in a direction substantially perpendicular to the ejection direction, the tray is provided with a deformation restricting portion being located forward in the ejection direction relative to the ground extension portion, the deformation restricting portion that restricts deformation of the ground extension portion in the ejection direction, and the casing is provided with a casing-side ground contacting portion being made of an electrically-conductive material, the casing-side ground contacting portion being in contact with the ground extension portion when the tray is housed in the casing.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the attached drawings.
Entire Structure
Description will be first made on the entire structure of a disc device 1.
As shown in
The disc device 1 includes a casing 10.
The casing 10 includes a lower casing 11 located on a bottom side and an upper casing 12 located on a top side (see
The casing 10 includes an opening 101 that is defined between the front ends of the lower casing 11 and upper casing 12. The casing 10 is provided with a tray 20 being capable of moving forward and backward through the opening 101. A rail 13 being located along the forward/backward movement direction of the tray 20 and a lock mechanism (not shown) that restricts the forward/backward movement of the tray 20 are provided inside the casing 10.
The tray 20 is formed of, for instance, synthetic resin in a substantially plate shape and is movable forward and backward through the opening 101 of the casing 10. Description will be made below on a state where the tray 20 is housed in the casing 10 (hereinafter referred to as “tray-in state”) and a state where the tray 20 is ejected from the casing 10 (hereinafter referred to as “tray-out state”).
The upper side of the tray 20 is provided with an arc recess 201 being formed slightly larger than the diameter of an optical disc (not shown) as a disc storage medium. The optical disc is mounted on the arc recess 201. The tray 20 is also provided with a disc processor 30 that includes a turntable 301 that holds the optical disc thereon and an information processor 302 that executes processing on the optical disc.
The lower side of the tray 20 is provided with a processor cover 31 so that the disc processor 30 is sandwiched between the tray 20 and the processor cover 31.
A bezel 32 is attached to a front portion 202 of the tray 20 to close the opening 101 in the tray-in state.
Structure of Primary Portion
Description will be made on the structure of a primary portion of the disc device 1.
As shown in
As shown in
The processor cover 31 is formed of an electrically-conductive material such as metal in a plate shape. A cover-side ground contacting portion 311 in the shape of a tongue extending upward is provided to the left side of the front end of the processor cover 31.
The front portion 202 of the tray 20 includes a substantially rectangular base 203 and a right projection 204 that projects in a substantially rectangular shape from the right end of the base 203.
A front projection 205 in the shape of a tongue extending downward as the deformation restricting portion is provided to the front end of the right projection 204 near the base 203. The front projection 205 is located on the upper front side of the casing-side ground contacting portion 117. A rear projection 206 being substantially parallel with the front projection 205 is provided to the rear side of the front projection 205. As shown in
As shown in
A substantially plate-shaped ground member 26 made of an electrically-conductive material such as metal is provided to the base 203. The ground member 26 is located in the vicinity of the electronic component 21 without connection to the electronic component 21. The ground member 26 includes a base cover 261 in the shape of a substantially laterally-elongated rectangle as the electronic component proximal portion. The base cover 261 is located in the vicinity of the electronic component 21 to substantially cover the electronic component 21. The base cover 261 is provided with an exposing hole 262 through which the switch section 23 and the LED 24 are visible.
The left fixing portion 263 being fixed to the base 203 is provided on the left end of the base cover 261. A right fixing portion 264 as the ground fixing portion being fixed to the base 203 is provided to each of the upper and lower ends of the right side of the base cover 261.
A ground-side cover contacting portion 266 is provided via a joint 265 to a substantially lateral center of the lower end of the base 261 at the left side of the right fixing portion 264. The ground-side cover contacting portion 266 is formed in the shape of a tongue extending leftward and is constantly in contact with the cover-side ground contacting portion 311 of the processor cover 31. The ground-side cover contacting portion 266 and the cover-side ground contacting portion 311 are contacted to define a first discharge path in the tray-out state shown in
With the first discharge path, when the finger of a user is close to the button of the bezel 32, static electricity charged in the user can flow to the processor cover 31 via the ground member 26, thereby preventing the static electricity from flowing to the electronic component 21. Thus, it is possible to prevent damage to the electronic component 21 in the tray-out state and in the tray-in state.
The right end of the base cover 261 is provided with a ground extension portion 267 in the shape of a tongue extending rightward (i.e., in a direction substantially perpendicular to the tray-out direction). The ground extension portion 267 is longitudinally deformable and has a tip end 268 that, when the ground extension portion 267 is deformed, moves along a movement path on which the front projection 205, the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 and the rear projection 206 exist. The ground extension portion 267 can be bent backward at two bendable parts aligned in its extending direction. The tip end 268 is thus brought into contact with the rear projection 206 in the tray-out state as shown in
In the tray-in state as shown in
With the second discharge path, when a finger of a user is close to the button of the bezel 32, static electricity charged in the user can flow to the lower casing 11 of the casing 10 via the ground member 26, thereby preventing the static electricity from flowing to the electronic component 21. Thus, it is possible to prevent damage to the electronic component 21 in the tray-in state.
Description will be made on an operation of the disc device 1 when the ground extension portion 267 is pressed in the tray-out direction.
When a finger contacts with the ground extension portion 267 to hold the disc device 1, for instance, in order to attach the bezel 32, and the ground extension portion 267 is thus deformed in the tray-out direction as shown in
As described above, the above exemplary embodiment can attain the following advantages.
(1) The tray 20 of the disc device 1 is provided with the ground member 26 including the base cover 261 that substantially covers the electronic component 21 and the ground extension portion 267 that extends rightward from the base cover 261, and the front projection 205 being located forward in the tray-out direction relative to the ground extension portion 267. The casing 10 is provided with the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 that is in contact with the ground extension portion 267 in the tray-in state.
With this arrangement, in the tray-in state, the ground extension portion 267 and the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 are brought into contact with each other to enable static electricity charged in a user to flow to the casing 10 via the ground member 26, thereby preventing the static electricity from flowing to the electronic component 21 to damage the electronic component 21. In addition, even when the ground extension portion 267 is deformed in the tray-out direction because of the contact with a finger, the contact between the ground extension portion 267 and the front projection 205 prevents the ground extension portion 267 from being excessively deformed. Therefore, the disc device 1 can be easily handled without worrying about damage to the ground extension portion 267.
(2) The casing-side ground contacting portion 117 is retracted behind the casing open surface toward the rear portion 113.
If the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 is located on the same plane as the casing open surface or is located outside the casing open surface, the tip end 268 would be positioned outside the casing open surface when the tray 20 is housed in the casing 10 and the ground extension portion 267 and the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 are contacted with each other. Thus, the front projection 205 would be necessarily located more outside than such a contact section, which results in increase in the longitudinal size of the disc device 1.
Conversely, in the exemplary embodiment, since the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 is retracted from the casing open surface toward the rear portion 113, the front projection 205 can be located substantially on the same plane as the casing open surface, thereby suppressing increase in the longitudinal size of the disc device 1.
(3) The casing-side ground contacting portion 117 is formed by cutting and raising a part of the right portion 114.
Thus, since it is not required to attach the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 to the lower case 11, or the like, productivity of the disc device 1 can be improved. In addition, the number of the components of the disc device 1 can be reduced.
(4) The right fixing portions 264 are provided to the right side of the base cover 261 in the vicinity of the proximal end of the ground extension portion 267 in order to fix the ground member 26 to the base 203 of the tray 20. In addition, the ground-side cover contacting portion 266 that is in contact with the processor cover 31 via the cover-side ground contacting portion 311 is provided to the left side of the right fixing portions 264 (i.e., to the opposite side of the ground extension portion 267 relative to the right fixing portions 264).
If the ground-side cover contacting portion 266 is provided to the same side as the ground extension portion 267 relative to the right fixing portions 264, the ground-side cover contacting portion 266 would separate from the processor cover 31 when the ground extension portion 267 is deformed in the tray-out direction, so that the first discharge path may not be secured. In order to reliably secure the first discharge path, fixation of the ground-side cover contacting portion 266 to the processor cover 31 would be required, which may result in increase in the steps of a manufacturing process.
Conversely, in the exemplary embodiment, since the ground-side cover contacting portion 266 is provided on the opposite side of the ground extension portion 267 relative to the right fixing portions 264, even when the ground extension portion 267 is deformed in the tray-out direction, the ground-side cover contacting portion 266 is prevented from separating from the processor cover 31. Therefore, the first discharge path can be secured without fixing the ground-side cover contacting portion 266 to the processor cover 31, thereby preventing increase in the steps of the manufacturing process.
It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiment described above, but may include modifications described below within a scope where an object of the present invention can be achieved.
Specifically, the front projection 205 may be located at an outside position relative to that of the exemplary embodiment while the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 is located on the same plane as the casing open surface or located outside the casing open surface. An example of the arrangement where the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 is substantially coplanar with the casing open surface is that the right portion 114 is not cut and raised so that the end of the right portion 114 functions as the casing-side ground contacting portion 117.
Alternatively, the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 may be formed by cutting and raising a part of the bottom portion 111 of the lower case 11.
Furthermore, the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 and the lower case 11 are separately formed and are fixed to each other by screwing, latching, fitting, crimping, bonding or the like. In this arrangement, the lower casing 111 may be made of a material without electrical conductivity while the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 is made of an electrically-conductive material.
The ground-side cover contacting portion 266 may be located on the same side as the ground extension portion 267 relative to the right fixing portions 264.
Specific configurations and processes when implementing the present invention may be other configurations or the like as long as an object of the present invention can be attained.
In the exemplary embodiment, as described above, the tray 20 of the disc device 1 is provided with the ground member 26 including the base cover 261 that substantially covers the electronic component 21 and the ground extension portion 267, and the front projection 205 being located forward in the tray-out direction relative to the ground extension portion 267. The casing 10 is provided with the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 that is in contact with the ground extension portion 267 in the tray-in state.
With this arrangement, in the tray-in state, the ground extension portion 267 and the casing-side ground contacting portion 117 are brought into contact with each other to enable static electricity charged in a user to flow to the casing 10 via the ground member 26, thereby preventing the static electricity from flowing to the electronic component 21 to damage the electronic component 21. In addition, even when the ground extension portion 267 is deformed in the tray-out direction, the contact between the ground extension portion 267 and the front projection 205 prevents the ground extension portion 267 from being excessively deformed. Therefore, the disc device 1 can be easily handled without worrying about damage to the ground extension portion 267.
The present invention is applicable as a disc device.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2008/057845 | 4/23/2008 | WO | 00 | 10/20/2010 |
